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Although there are a number of different platforms available to use to set up your blog, a majority of the blogs on the Internet use WordPress. There’s good reason, too: It’s simple to use with big buttons and an intuitive process. And you can add all kinds of plugins and gadgets to make your site even more attractive and memorable.
Still, there are inevitable hurdles we all run into during crunch time. How many of us haven’t wanted to throw our computers out the window on certain occasions when WordPress was acting up? The good news is that thanks to a little online training you can become an expert in all things WordPress implementation and troubleshooting. Here are some of the ways you can save yourself time and frustration:
Getting started
If you’re starting a new blog on WordPress, it’s worth reviewing the basics to the platform and structure before diving in yourself. Even if you’ve built blogs before, with WordPress no less, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with what goes where and what each button does. Most bloggers stick with the same four or five assets and features they know and never broaden their horizons. In reality, this program is designed to be toyed with by creative-minded individuals looking to maximize their online space, and to make it shine. Study up.
Roadblocks along the way
It’s one thing to launch a site, another to maintain it. When your CMS is acting up or giving you error messages you’ve never encountered before, it’s probably already too late to save what you’ve been working on so tirelessly. You can do a lot more ahead of these problems to prevent them from erupting. Get to know the inside of your blog — how it works and what it can do — by investing in basic upkeep and maintenance. WordPress is going to be buggy at times, but you can cut down on the issues you run into. And how much of an inconvenience it poses is really up to you.
Being discovered
Arguably the biggest mistake that newcomers (and some veterans) to WordPress make is filing their copy, hitting submit, and then hoping that their articles get found by the public. The SEO sections of these blogs are in fact critical to your success, if measured by traffic and exposure. One of the downsides to how easy it is to set up a blog is that so many people are doing it that it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. You can separate yourself from the pack with a basic understanding of both SEO and how WordPress applies it. If you learn to treat WordPress as an ally, and not an enemy, then you will go further than the competition.
Danny Groner is the manager of blogger partnerships and outreach for Shutterstock and Skillfeed.
This is very useful to beginners to start their blog.